Servers are used to make various types of electronic content available to requesting client devices. In response to a request from such a client device, for example, one or more files that have been stored at a server may be sent to the client device to provide a visual and/or audio presentation of the requested electronic content at the client device. Files provided by a server may have various formats/types including, but not limited to, text files, graphic files, declarative files such as Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and eXtensible Markup Language (XML) files, and script-based files that are executed at the client device. Files provided by a server may provide Adobe® Flash®-based content or other types of rich Internet application (RIA) content that provides enhanced functionality and features that are more robust than typical web page features.
The content provided by servers can be considered “static” in the sense that the same content is generally provided regardless of the context of the request, the time of the request, and/or the individual requesting the content. Making a piece of content “dynamic,” i.e., providing it differently in different contexts, at different times, and/or to different users, has been difficult. Generally, making server-provided content available in different contexts, at different times, and/or to different users has generally required either making multiple copies of the content on the server for different contexts, times, and/or users or has required creating and using relatively complicated scripts within the content files themselves to provide the content differently. Accordingly, the updating, localizing, and other dynamic provision of server-provided content has been burdensome, difficult, and has otherwise been frustrated.
As a specific example, a content creator may use a content creation application, such as Flash® Professional, Flash® Builder®, or Flash® Catalyst®, to create content that is stored as one or more source files, e.g., as a FLA formatted file, by the content creation application. The source may then be compiled to provide a file, e.g., in the SWF file format, that can be distributed by a server for rendering by a player application, such as an Adobe® Flash® Player, on a client device. To make the graphics, text, video, sound, or other elements dynamic, a content creator may use the content creation application to create custom script, such as custom Actionscript® code, to access external information and/or alter the contents. Such production of dynamic content has thus generally required knowledge of script-programming language techniques and involved complicated development processes. Existing techniques for providing dynamic content from servers suffer from these and various other deficiencies.